Spring is always a special time in Padstow and what better way to celebrate the early blooms, and return of hustle and bustle to the harbour, than with a collaborative exhibition featuring ceramicist Ali Tomlin, and fine artist's Claire Henley, Emma Dunbar and John Button.
The exhibition will be open daily from 10:30am until 5pm, from Friday 18th April until Monday 5th May.
Join us for a glass of bubbly and meet the Artist's on Good Friday, 18th April 2025.
The area around the Camel Estuary has been special to me since, as an 11-year-old, I was invited by a school friend and her family for October half term at Trevone. We swam every day, got to grips with the old wooden body boards, walked the coast path and explored the harbour and back streets of Padstow.
The trip on the ferry to Rock and the walk to Daymer Bay, then back via St Enodoc church was repeated this February with my husband, with the same feelings of exhilaration and love of the landscape and history. In the intervening 52 years there have been numerous visits with friends as well as our own children, as they too have formed a bond with the area.
One memorable visit was in February 2020, a sparkling blue-sky day with an unusually low tide. I was on a ‘work’ trip and, fuelled by a pasty, I walked for miles along the sand towards Hawkers Cove. The following month we all went into lock-down and the memories of that walk served me well when I didn’t see the sea for months.
Once I’ve painted a place many times, as I have the area around Padstow, there’s a shock of recognition each time you visit in person. You’re incredibly familiar with the shapes of the landscape, the character of the buildings and the colours at different times of year. I walk, look, take photographs and occasionally sketch, then return to my studio in Warwickshire to paint. As I use mixed media this approach works best, as collage on a breezy Cornish beach is a recipe for disaster! The main element of my work is acrylic, with texture and detail added using self-painted collage and occasional use of pencil crayons. It can be a messy process when I’m in full flow, as my spattered clothes and the walls of my studio can testify.
